The Angry Backlash Against Vancouver's Council Was Avoidable The Angry Backlash Against Vancouver's Council Was Avoidable

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City hall ignored 50 years of successful neighbourhood planning. Now it's feeling the heat.
Patrick Condon
1 Jun 2026
1 Jun 2026The Tyee
University of British Columbia professor emeritus Patrick M. Condon is the author of Broken City and other books.
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City hall ignored 50 years of successful neighbourhood planning. Now it's feeling the heat. … Article written by Patrick Condon.
On May 21, Vancouver city council responded to public discomfort over their July 2023 city wide zoning change, which granted broad new "entitlements" to city landowners over what can be built on their properties.
The changes allowed owners to construct six units on any parcel in the city, no neighbourhood hearing required. The first examples built in various parts of the city came as unwelcome surprises to many residents. Petitions were launched.
Council reacted to this widespread complaint by voting to ask staff to pause the plan for six-plexes — a plan this same council approved two years before. Council also asked staff to explore what other North American cities are doing "to better balance housing delivery with neighbourhood impacts." The passed motion is titled Review and Refinement of Multiplex Housing Policies Based on Early Implementation Experience.
Scores of speakers voiced their complaints at this meeting. One was Sean R. McEwen, a noted architect whose practice focussed on the disadvantaged, including the Mole Hill housing project in the West End. McEwen wrote a letter to council that cut straight to the heart of the current mess.
"Unfortunately, in my opinion, this council jettisoned years of successful community planning experience, when it cancelled neighbourhood plans created by staff and citizens, at considerable taxpayer expense and significant dedication of volunteer time by residents," McEwen wrote.
Anyone who had the pulse of the neighbourhoods would have known this would be a problem. For 50 years, Vancouver had a world-famous tradition of working with, not against, neighbourhoods. That collaborative model delivered real results — a tripling of housing units city wide — all with the consent and active participation of city residents.
Step by step over the recent years, council has thrown that hard-won tradition overboard. The new way of doing things is codified in Vancouver's Official Community Plan, formally adopted two months ago.
Scapegoating 'NIMBYs'
This was all sold on the false notion that neighbourhood "NIMBYs" were the main reason housing costs too much. All that stood in the way of affordability, supposedly, was an over-regulated housing market and a council too responsive to local concerns. The solution, we were told, was to largely bypass the tradition of neighbourhood planning, a tradition that brought fame to the city, and impose a generic one size fits all development plan, ending resident comment on most new development.
But wait! If simply adding new housing units within existing neighbourhoods were by itself enough to lower housing prices, Vancouver, after tripling housing units city-wide should have the lowest home prices in North America.
Instead, it has among the very highest. What gives?
As a professor of urban design, I myself have argued for making it easier to replace single family residences with multi-unit complexes — particularly when tied to requirements that a percentage be rented at below market rates. However, I would gladly subject these designs to the local democratic process of discussion and review by neighbours and other city residents. And, after a thorough exchange, abide by the democratic will expressed.
By contrast, while passing the new city-wide plan, this council simultaneously repealed scores of...